It’s not fine anymore to feed pigeons at Urbania, as that could lead to a fine!
Azziano initiates stringent measures to deter its resident pigeon feeders
In the summer of 2020 and 2021, the Azziano community stopped swimming pool use and activities at the clubhouse level. As a result, there were no morning walkers on the podium and no pigeons either, as nobody was feeding pigeons during the lockdown of those two years.
In 2022, with normalcy returning to all residential communities, Azziano now allows clubhouse use and activity in the swimming pool. The morning walkers are back, and some have a secret passion for feeding pigeons.
Before 2020, several pigeon lovers would strew grains on the Azziano lawn and the podium to attract hordes of pigeons that would congregate to feed on the grain, defecate and fly away. When the Azziano society management warned the pigeon feeders to stop their activity, some did, but others continued.
Residents of some Azziano buildings are finding ingenious but undesirable ways to feed pigeons. Some people throw wheat dough (atta) out of their balcony onto the podium. Others feed snacks (ghatia) to pigeons. However, the most common choice of pigeon feeders is grains.
Sadly, pigeons don’t just feed on grains but do other unpleasant (dreadful) things at Urbania’s buildings. For example, pigeons sit on window ledges and defecate. We have pigeon droppings on our window glass and ledge at our home, which we can’t clean as we can’t access those spaces.
Pigeon feeders have no reason to patronize those unnatural pest birds that are aggressive to native birds and increase building maintenance costs. Pigeons that have eaten grains return to ledges and other structures to roost. They also build nests in apartments out of trash, garden plants, and other available material and increase their population by laying eggs. Sometimes, pigeons create unclean conditions and die on balconies of unoccupied homes.
Garden group members suffer from pigeons as the birds spoil plants by plucking stems and leaves they use for nesting. They also sit on pots, defecate on them and displace plants.
Pigeons soil the signboards of Urbania’s retailers. While traveling towards the Nashik-Mumbai road, you can now see rows of pigeons on high tension electrical cables due to the pigeon patronage by some of Urbania’s residents. Pigeons could cause electrical lines to trip and power outages at Urbania.
In some parts of Thane, like Gladys Alvares Marg, pigeons well-fed by pigeon lovers could start roosting on trees and defecating on people and cars on the road below. I had had several instances at Thane when a pigeon in a tree above deposited its dropping on my head!
Apartment owners must spend a lot to prevent pigeon entry into their balconies. Bird netting to keep pigeons out is expensive and needs maintenance and replacement every few years. Azziano’s common area maintenance increases by housekeeping staff cleaning pigeon droppings, feathers, and nesting material daily from the podium and other areas.
The most serious concern pigeons pose to the health of Azziano residents. Pigeons commonly find their way to the top of external air conditioning units. The germs of pigeons and their feces can contaminate the AC unit filters. Such germs can also enter homes whose balconies have pigeon nests and young and adult pigeons. Pigeons spread numerous diseases, including Hypersensitivity pneumonitis (bird fancier’s lung), Salmonellosis (food poisoning), Cryptococcosis, Histoplasmosis, and Psittacosis. These diseases are spread mostly through the dry pigeon feces risking the cleaning staff and Azziano residents who unwittingly breathe it. Pigeon nests also harbor mites and fleas that could easily enter homes with pigeon nests.
Nesting pigeons create nuisance through their constant cooing and wing fluttering as they visit and leave their nests.
Pigeon feeders may be oblivious to the damage they are causing by feeding pigeons daily. A pigeon feeder at any building may be creating a pigeon community at some other building. However, as proverbial justice, at Azziano, the building with more pigeon feeders now has pigeons roosting on the balconies of that building’s apartments.
The key pigeon mitigation step is denying their food; the Azziano management had recently initiated a fine for feeding that pest bird. Since then, the pigeon feeders of Azziano have gone into hiding and adopted newer modes of feeding their favorite bird. Some pigeon feeders continue to throw dough, bread, and chapatis from their balconies on the podium below. Others strew grains on grass, secretly carrying them in hand and leaving them when others are not watching.
Pigeon feeders’ lack of fear or respect for community guidelines makes them continue their abhorrent practice of sustaining a social evil. In addition, they have reduced the property value as the Azziano podium with pigeon feathers and droppings look inelegant and not a high-quality living space.
Though pigeon feeders are oblivious to it, technology now helps nab and punish them. With video cameras, a building can easily identify the culprits feeding pigeons. The future steps in bringing pigeon-feeding violators to book would include naming and shaming them in the community and, in worse cases seeking their eviction from the community.
When they don’t find food at a place, pigeons stop coming there. Hence, Azziano management has taken the right initiative to stop pigeon feeding at its seven buildings which the management of other Urbania buildings must follow.
It is shocking that after the scare of COVID-19 and a respiratory virus, some citizens blithely encourage a pest, the pigeon, which also causes numerous lung infections that also cause fatalities. Mumbai region has witnessed numerous cases of pigeon-induced diseases leading to mortality of the affected patients. Mumbai, however, has not yet legislated against pigeon feeding.
Blue rock pigeons are neither a pet nor a part of city ecology. Instead, they are a pest that some people have created by feeding pigeons and letting those birds multiply unnaturally. Every right-thinking community must prohibit pigeon feeding and institute strict deterrent action against such an abhorrent practice. Even after you stop leaving grains for them, pigeons will harbor a place but will ultimately leave when they know their benefactors’ hands are tied.
If you are a pigeon feeder, we hope we have convinced you to stop your asocial act. If not, the fear of fine, community humiliation, and likely eviction from a community should wisen you to the right path of NOT FEEDING PIGEONS.
Absolutely agree Girl. Most feel that feeding pigeons would probably absolve them of all past sins but these birds are more like pests and only those who spend half the time cleaning their poop from balconies and window sills would understand. Here a 500dhs (10000 rupees) fine has been announced if caught feeding birds or stray cats too and so incidences have reduced drastically.